ERROR: Misao
by VioletViola
Summary: After watching various Let's Plays of an indie RPG game called Misao, three girls decide to download the game. However, Mari notices that their version is different than the Let's Plays, very different. Misao begs for the three girls for help, gaining Mari's attention. However, Misao is angered once Mari's friends think Mari is a liar and sends the three girls into the game. ERROR.


Outside, darkness stretches out as far as the eye can see. It's a cold and dark void that definitely looks eerie and suspicious, almost as if the shadows may swallow my friends and me whole. The three of us huddle closely together underneath the covers, the only light coming from the large black laptop's screen that illuminates our faces. The rain is descending down upon our town in icy blankets, thunder shaking the entire house. It is the perfect weather to play indie RPG horror games to the most daring individuals, but I have much more sense than the brave. I am a chicken, terrified. I can only watch in between my fingers as Rue the brave plays the game, flanked by RJ and me. Granted, this game is not the scariest game, no. It's gorier than it is scary to be honest. However, some moments make me shiver and squeal. Again, I am a foolish girl. I'm scared of something like Misao sucking us into the dimension that I know about after watching Let's Plays by PewdiePie and Markiplier or maybe a murderer slowly creeping into the bedroom, wielding a chainsaw. Vroom! Vroom! Unfortunately, there is no wonderful place to hide that almost guarantees safety from such an intruder.

First of all, Misao is a Japanese game made by Wolf Editor. The creator of the game is named Sen, the same guy who made Mad Father, another popular indie RPG horror game. It's about this teenage girl named Misao who goes missing and is killed. Her spirit is vengeful and sucks the school she used to attend into an evil spirit-filled dimension. The protagonist is Aki, a boy/girl who just wants to be Misao's friends and will do anything to save her spirit. The game is not only horror-filled, but also is laced with friendship. It's a nice touch, really.

It has been a few seconds. Finally, Rue speaks up. "Are we going to play as Aki or Akito?" Rue questions, leaning closer to the screen. It's the 3.0 update to the game with new sprites and deaths and the option of playing as a girl or a boy upon the actual beginning. RJ and I look at her, expecting her to make the decision. Her computer, her downloaded English translation. Rue rolls her eyes and selects the male protagonist, shrugging. "Let's keep the name Aki," she says and RJ and I nod, silent. The game begins with the sound of a bell and "HELP ME" on the screen with scratchy white letters.

"Help me," the computer says in a feminine voice. The words shock Rue, RJ, and I. We inhale sharply, not expecting this newly added feature. The bell noise accompanied by "HELP ME" is all there is in the previous versions of Misao. An actual female voice, somewhat distorted and definitely in pain, is something that terrifies the crud out of an unsuspecting gamer. However, still, no one has ever mentioned the new voice dialogue in the reviews or anything. I don't know what to think.

On the other hand, Rue does. So does RJ. "Cool," they whisper in unison. I open my mouth to inform them of my nerves, but no words come out. Only a small choking sound comes out and they giggle at me. I blush and look away, repeating my motto of "not a chicken" in my head, praying it will come true. It doesn't. Rue nudges me and I return my focus to the screen. It's getting strange. Misao's purple silhouette is on the screen now, kind of like the opening menu. The background is black. Is this the menu screen? Have we gotten directed back to it? That's not supposed to happen, is it? Is it?

"Find me. Please…" the voice pleads, sounding strained and weak. A hand slowly reaches out toward the screen as if reaching for Rue, RJ, and me. "You three… Pl-Please…" Misao whispers, her voice hoarse. Us three? Us three? Us three? There's three of us! Of us! No, she can't possibly mean _us _us, right? It is likely Aki has two companions in this update! Maybe Tohma and Ayaka? My heart is pounding against my chest. Rue and RJ don't seem phased by the interaction, which is strange. Do they see what I'm seeing? Rue is spamming one of the keys on the laptop, probably trying to get the game off of whatever is going on at the moment.

"We will," I whisper, doubting my sanity. Misao is just a game. There is no way… No way at all…! Why am I talking to a game? "We will," I say, sounding more confident. Misao is a fairly easy game, right? The deaths are all mapped out in my head. However, it has been a while since I have seen those playthroughs and none of those playthroughs have been 3.0. _New deaths, _my mind says. It's just a game. If we—Aki—dies, then the game returns to most previous save point, after all. There is no true _game over_, right? An eternal game over can't happen with a bunch of pixels.

Misao seems satisfied with my "we will." Her posture straightens slightly. Then Misao falls to her knees, clutching at her head "Please hurry. It… hurts… UGH!" With that, the screen fades, replaced with the normal HELP ME screen. With each passing second, it's becoming harder to believe that that is an intended function of the game. No, Misao could hear us and could possibly even see us. We have gotten ourselves into trouble, haven't we?

"Hey, you look freaked out," Rue says to me tauntingly. As I should. The game isn't locked anymore and Aki begins the beginning dialogue explaining Misao's disappearance three months ago and the hopeful friendship that Aki wishes to share with the simple and plain girl. "Are you a baby?"

I scrunch up my nose to protest. I open my mouth and retort, "Am not!"Silence falls over the room as Rue slowly scoots away from me, pushing RJ to the very edge of the bed. "Besides you should also be terrified too! Misao… just called out to us!" I protest frantically, defending myself. Not a chicken, not a chicken.

Rue smirks. "It's just a game."

Famous last words, my friend. Famous last words.

"Also, it's not even scary. It only said 'HELP ME' and that's all. There was a bell sound, but that shouldn't scare you! I think it's cooler than it is scary," Rue says. RJ nods in agreement. What game are they playing? Misao… really… did call out to us! I have heard it and I have seen it and there is no way it's just an illusion. No way, no way, no way, no way! I'm not crazy.

"No," I say, my throat dry. "Misao said something about helping her. She said that there were three of us! And there are! She can hear and see us!" They don't believe me, do they? They look skeptical and somewhat disgusted by my display. Couldn't they understand? You don't toy around with illusions about vengeful spirits calling for help, do you? Anything is possible. They don't… believe me… My hope depletes as I nervously bit the nail on my right thumb. My instincts are warning me. This is bad. This is bad.

RJ smirks. "You can leave if you want, if you're going to be chicken. You're playing with us, aren't you? You want us to believe your silly little game that you've made up to get us scared. You honestly don't want to play because you're too terrified of this game!" RJ laughs as if it's funny. It's not. "You are so predictable, ya know?"

My ears are burning with embarrassment, but my blood is boiling with anger. It would be a fruitless act to argue my case. I have never lied in my life. I confess as soon as possible, earning the brand of "the little dorky child" among my peers. "Ha…ha!" My fake laugh is cold and hollow. "Let's just start playing the game, all right?" I say through gritted teeth, knowing that Misao would have to appear again soon and display an act that makes my friends certain that she is aware of us.

Rue pronounces "Misao" wrong. As she reads the script aloud, I ever so often correct her. How Rue manages to pronounces Yoshino incorrectly amazes me. Yoshino is a simple enough name, right? Rue doesn't pay attention to my critiques, saying it like "Ya-sheh-no". The act is irritating me, but my mouth is zipped up tight. "Yoshino," I mumble weakly. Rue has pronounced all the character names wrong. Finally, when Rue pronounces "Sohta" like the word "soda", I calmly ask for me to read instead.

Rue nods. "Go ahead, _otaku._" She says the word "otaku" in a nasty manner.

I frown at Rue's intended insult. First of all, I call myself an otaku jokingly all the time, referring to my obsession over manga and anime. Second of all, you don't have to like anime and manga to know how to pronounce Japanese words. However, I swallow this and begin reading at a fast pace. I blush every time I come to a cussword and RJ has to say it for me. Yeah, I'm an innocent little poop, aren't I?

Rue chuckles into her palm. "Hey, let's pretend that you are being serious."

Pretend?

"What am I supposed to say?" Rue is snickering deviously now. "Misao, Misao! Please don't kill us!" Rue teases with a fake British (don't ask) accent. "As if you're even real!"

It's common, I think, for the fool to claim that something is not real. The very real thing gets angry at said fool and angrily does something bad to the fool and her unfortunate companions, one being the protagonist who knows the thing is real. The fool turns out to be a coward and is one of the first people to die.

I wish I could tell this story differently. I really wish I could. As Rue dooms us all to a terrible fate, Misao's voice speaks again. Only this time, all three of us can hear the words that come from the computer as they gradually begin to sound not from the computer. "You shouldn't have done that, Rue," Misao says, her voice brimming with hatred. Sometimes the innocent little one is the most levelheaded in times like this. Rue has probably taken a tinkle in her pants and RJ is looking at me as if I am a witch or something. I shake my head with disbelief, a sinking feeling in my gut. The screen fills with static (good grief, not Slender), Misao's message repeating in a distorted manner. Rue screams and is slowly being dragged into the screen. Her hands are literally passing through the static, fingertips, then fingers, then knuckles.

RJ and I grab onto Rue's legs and pull with all our might, grunting from the effort. It's like fighting against a strong current in the ocean or a tornado. With one final pull, all three of us disappear into the static, leaving being a laptop with a fatal "-ERROR" screen, often known as the blue screen of death.

It's difficult to describe static. It tingles against your skin and every so often, you fly up and then back down like that ride at the amusement park. Up and down and up and down. It doesn't do anything to help any of our stomachs though. The air is constantly sucked out of my lungs and then my lungs are filled again. This lasts for five minutes, but it seems to last for hours and hours.

Finally, the three of us are dropped onto a hard floor. I wince, my eyes closed. The impact is not bone-shattering, but it hurts. However, when I do open my eyes, I really wish I would have kept them closed. RJ and Rue are on either side of me, grunting in pain. We look like cartoon characters, drawn in the style of Aki and Misao and Tohma. We are located outside of a door to a classroom. In a hallway. That looks strangely like…

No.

"You guys! What are you doing on the floor?" The voice sounds unfamiliar, but friendly. "Say, I haven't seen you around. Are you three new students?"

"We fell down," I say, slowly standing up. I still ache all over from the fall, wincing. "Also, yes. We are new students." I slowly look up, meeting a pair of familiar eyes. The eyes are brown with flecks of gold in them. I gasp. "Uh… he-hello!" The teenage boy is Aki, no doubt about it. By the looks of the school, it looks like we're in Misao and in a few minutes, this place is going down. "I w-want to ask you about something—someone!"

Aki nods. "Ask away! Oh, by the way, my name is Aki."

Behind me, RJ and Rue stand up, equally shocked and wearing horrified expressions. I look at them and then look at Aki, clearing my throat. "Thank you! This is RJ and Rue. My name is Mari! Oh, and we were wondering about a girl named Misao who used to go here. She disappeared three months ago?"

** Author's Note: I do not own Misao. I only think it's a wonderful game with the best characters with some I want to hug and some I want to send six feet under. But I do own my OC and that's what counts, right? RJ is owned by Rainbow Jewel and Rue is owned by Chaos Princess Cyclone (I would like to apologize to her for making her act like a total witch in this, but she gave me permission so yeah...). Or should I say RJ is Rainbow Jewel, Rue is CPC, and Mari is, well, me... Please review and favorite and follow and all that stuff! I will literally give you virtual cookies (or you could give a virtual cookie to one of the characters as a fun game)! Thank you for reading! Oh, and this fic is full of spoilers! XD  
><strong> ** _NEXT TIME: _**

"How do we escape?"

It's simple, really. "We have to appease Misao's spirit."


End file.
